Carl Froch hopes Andre Ward's recent cut will dissuade the American from fighting dirty with his head when they clash on Saturday.
Englishman ready to meet fire with fire when he takes on Ward
Carl Froch believes that Andre Ward's recent cut could work in his favour when he faces the American on Saturday night.
The pair meet in Atlantic City in a unification of two super-middleweight world titles and the final of the Super Six tournament.
The contest had initially been slated for October 29 but, when Ward sustained a nasty cut over his right eye in sparring, the fight was postponed by nearly two months.
Ward insists the injury is now fully healed and Froch this week claimed he would not target the old wound, but the Nottingham fighter does concede it could have other advantages.
Ward won the WBA title with a technical decision win against Mikkel Kessler when the Dane suffered a horrible cut and there were accusations of headbutting levelled at Ward.
The American has a reputation for liberal head movement, but WBC champion Froch believes he may be more careful now that he has a vulnerability of his own to protect.
"It might slow down his use of the head a bit because there is scar tissue above his eye that could potentially open back up," Froch stated.
"He's not going to want that so maybe he'll lay off a bit with his head. But who knows."
Philosophical
Froch has been philosophical about the prolonged wait for the fight to take place and continues to look on the bright side.
"It possibly says something about his mindset that he postponed the fight," said the Englishman.
"But not too much. He had a bad cut, he needed seven stitches so he felt he wasn't going to be ready because he couldn't spar in the build-up to the fight. So fair enough, everybody's different."
The two men jousted at this week's final fight press conference with Froch suggesting he is more than capable of meeting fire with fire.
"I've got a head as well," he said. "We've got a referee in there to sort the job out. It has been mentioned a few times and maybe a bigger deal of it has been made because I've brought it up.
"It's obviously a concern in that you don't want to be getting headbutted in the face or eyes because you can get cut, and if you get blood in your eye then it can be a very big hindrance.
"That happened quite often in the Mikkel Kessler fight and Ward was allowed to get away with it.
Faith in officials
"So that's what has raised the concern. But personally it's not something that I sit thinking about at night and it's not a major concern because the referee and the officials are totally aware of their job and what they need to do.
"This is a fight of such magnitude it's all going to be fair and above board, I'm sure, and I'm looking forward to a great, clean fight."
Ward was keen to address those accusations and insisted there were no grounds to the claim that he is a dirty fighter.
The unbeaten American, an Olympic gold medalist in 2004, said: "They want to over-compensate and tell the referee 'look out for his head'. I don't lead with my head.
"I'm a regular fighter. When I fight inside, things happen. I don't have a malicious bone in my body. People try to tag me with being a dirty fighter.
"Just like he's got concerns, we've got concerns too. This man is online talking about how he's going to spear me with his elbow if I come in with my head.
"If that's not dirty then I don't know what is. I can put my head on anybody's chest in a boxing match. That's part of boxing."
